Pocket Sized References

IrishKilter · April 14, 2016, 5:26am

Hello everyone! My name is Micah “IrishKilter” Parker. I’ve been developing with the Unreal Engine since around 2006-2007 when I got into modding, originally creating a community patch for then UT2k4 mod Killing Floor known as the “Unofficial Community Patch 2.11” and have been hooked on development ever since. I was co-creator of a total conversion known as Black Sierra for UT3 where we won honorable mention and have been working on various small projects, game ideas, and etc throughout the years with UT3/UDK and now UE4.

I’m an animator at heart, but began learning modeling and texturing from lacking a dedicated props person during Black Sierra, and then eventually realized I had only first person weapons to animate because we had no character artist and began learning character modeling since then too. Over many years of just having fun, and learning I’ve come a long way and have began really wanting to strive for perfection in all aspects,and well this lead to one major short coming in the development world that I have began filling on my own.

In my time as a developer the one thing I’ve noticed is that I spend more time looking up references than I do actually creating things. Hours are spent looking for multiple angles of “similar” looking objects so I can create an accurate version of a prop, I’ve pooled together many disconnected images of skin tones, wrinkles, and clothing in hopes to come up with a realistic looking character, and then I have to go and browse tons of textures or create my own. Overall it’s an extremely time consuming process, that involves many different site, and many different approaches.

This post is about my journey to fix that, I warn you now that it is heavy in images and a bit long. If you want to skip the narrative and just browse the pictures you’ll get the gist of it easy. Basically I’ve begun creating my own references, and wanted to share some of the production with you and overall see what people have to say about my methods, results, and everything in between.

Chapter 1: Custom Textures - The Blue Book

I started my adventures by wanting to create highly-realistic looking objects, and the best way to do that is to have a highly realistic photo. So I purchased myself a Nikon D5200 camera with some equipment, borrowed lights from a friend, and began working on just some basic up-close shots to pull nicely detailed textures from

[shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/BookPropRAW.jpg[/shot][shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/BookProp.jpg[/shot][shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/BookProp002.jpg[/shot][shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/BookProp003.jpg[/shot]

Although the results were pretty good, I had a lot of invested time in post; editing the photo’s to match in color, contrast, and brightness since I shot everything in Auto mode. I wasn’t experienced with a camera in any way outside of point and click and this was causing me a lot of issues. First off, most of the time the object wasn’t in proper focus for a good reference, depth of field was a constant problem with auto mode, and the camera’s ISO would often be ramped up adding a lot of grain due to my lack of knowledge in both cameras as well as scene lighting.

Chapter 2: Learning The Camera

I had no idea how to use manual mode, and had even less of a clue what Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO were or how to use them when I first got my camera. I shot a lot in auto mode, and always regretted it in the end. I attempted to shoot in both manual and auto for a while, usually ending up with 50-100 photos of a single subject in hopes that I’d get a good shot as I played with the settings and focus constantly to try and make things work.

I had chosen a local college as my playground
[shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/WJ.jpg[/shot]

I went around simply pretending like I went there, and began taking photos of buildings, trees, doors, halls, and furniture. I spent hours shifting things around to get multiple angles and close ups but at the end of the day I kept ending up only semi-decent photos, nice to use when free-handing something and needing a quick look to see how something goes. But not quite the best still. I still have gigs worth of data waiting to be processed simply because most of them were garbage and not worth shifting through, but can’t bring myself to delete hours of work.

[shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/WJShelf.jpg[/shot][shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/Bluechair01.jpg[/shot][shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/Bluechair02.jpg[/shot][shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/Greenchair01.jpg[/shot][shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/Greenchair02.jpg[/shot]

Chapter 3: The Sun is Your Frenemy

It took a while for me to realize that I should of learned more about lighting than the camera to start with, proper lighting is crucial to getting a proper shot. Things you may not notice with your eyes pickup a lot more with a camera, especially light differences. Reflection was also a major problem, shiny surfaces tend to warp light around them and reflect it back, often making a texture useless with all the reflection captured in it.

Taking photos outside is tricky, especially if you want even lighting. It’s less daunting now, but you’re simply at the mercy of the weather. A good overcast is the best, as it evens the light for you as the sun goes through the clouds, but overcast often comes with rain more than not, and wet surfaces are of no use here. Cloudy days are second best, but you spend a lot of time waiting for a cloud to line up with the sun with the perfect angle so you can get a nicely lit subject. But if you spend too much time adjusting your camera settings you lose your opportunity. However I dig manage to luck out now and again.

Here’s a shot of my work-station as I processed a photo, created a model, and brought it into UE4 for testing

[shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/WorkStation.JPG[/shot][shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/Pole.jpg[/shot]

Chapter 4 - The Lightbox

I have learned quite a lot about photography, although I’m no expert and I’d never do a professional shoot for some one I have become quite comfortable in my own setting, and I’ve even gotten to the point where I can handle my camera well enough that when I look at a scene/subject I can begin with a rough estimate of what my settings need to be to get the desired result of a well lit, in-focus, clean photo. No longer do I need to snap 30+ photos with many different settings hoping to get something right. A single photo to two per angle is often all I end up with after fine-tuning some settings with a few test-shots.

So I made the move to begin creating my own lighting, a process which brought me back to my knees and made me feel like I was back to square one, if not further back. I had began using lights in my work, and often ended with nasty results from over or under lit photography. Harsh shadows were a major problem and the lighting often threw off my camera settings to a point that I no longer felt confident in my control in the camera after so much hard work. My problem was a combination of poor technique, and cheap equipment. Lightbulbs that weren’t the same color temperature, random placement of lights without understanding how they worked, and many other things added up to my misery.

My process had began to get better though as I learned how to light my scenes

[shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/IMG_20141207_163952.jpg[/shot]

I began working with white backdrops initially, pieces of poster board bought at Wal*Mart for .99 cents, before I moved onto creating what is known as a Lightbox. Using cardboard, I cut out some windows and taped some white, low-thread count linen to it which act as a light diffuser just like the clouds did to the sun, and added inside it what is known as an “infinity wall”. A wall that curves from the backdrop into the bottom to allow a seamless transition of wall and reflection of light, rather than a harsh L shaped wall and floor that bounces light harshly, creating shadows.

[shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/LightboxV1.jpg[/shot][shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/RedSoloCopBooth.jpg[/shot][shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/SoloCup.jpg[/shot][shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/PhotoboothCollage.jpg[/shot]

I wasn’t going to stop either, driving to and from work every day I began to notice something. There was a lot of valuable resources out there. People were just THROWING away furniture, sure some of it was broken, but often it was just old, out-dated, and an idea clicked. I could build an EVEN BIGGER light box. I could crank this idea up to a 10. Every day, I began throwing other people’s garbage into the back of my pickup to and from work, and I began getting a collection of objects that I could process, 360 degree references, no more searching the internet for hours and combining random variations together to make a whole piece, close up texture photos, macro detail, front, side, back, top, and bottom profile views. I barely had room to move, but it was great.

[shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/PhotoboothV2.jpg[/shot][shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/IMG_20150605_191543.jpg[/shot][shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/IMG_20150605_191556.jpg[/shot][shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/PhotoboothV2Collage.jpg[/shot]

However my yard did begin to look like a dump…

[shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/IMG_20150711_110528.jpg[/shot]

It was at this point that I realized I couldn’t actually fit half the furniture I collected into the small room I was using as my work-space, let alone into the booth I had built. So naturally I built Photobooth Version 3.0 outside in the yard! It used cheap 250-Count sheets, a 4ft long roll of paper, natural sunlight, and some old lumber! It stretched 8ftx6ft and could fit a whole couch inside it.

Sadly, it was not meant to be. Photobooth v3 suffered fatal injuries when a storm came through while I was out for a weekend, and it had collapsed snapping one of the walls in two.

Chapter 5 - Jerry The Mannequin

My mother is a seamstress, she’s sewn all her life. So when I told her about my adventures in photography she naturally thought I was insane but supported me anyways. I was having issues with my setup, but my work was solid, and the results were good. I wanted to use my knowledge and create a better method to my madness.

But more than that, I wanted to add to it. I’m a character artist at heart, I got into game development because I wanted to learn how to animate, but couldn’t model at the time. Eventually I learned how to develop my own characters. But my biggest problem has always been clothing, it was hard for me to make. Very time consuming, for poor results. On top of that, finding good textures and references for clothing is practically null. So I began shifting from furniture I stole from other people’s garbage and moved towards referencing clothing. I had asked my mother for a lot of advice on how clothing is made, put together, drafted, etc and she’s given me a lot of help. I began wanting to really reference clothes, the shape, the wrinkles, how it sits, the textures, just like I did with the furniture.

So I began looking for a mannequin, when naturally a few months later for Christmas my mother had actually found, and bought me a mannequin from a costume store that was going out of business, she stuffed him inside a large box and presented it to me as my Christmas present. We named him Jerry.

[shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/imagejpeg953.jpg[/shot]

Jerry was an old mannequin that was cracked and brittle, but he was still sturdy. However Jerry was missing a stand and was tied down with rope from his previous owners, but I felt he deserved better. So I bought some supplies, took him to my work, where I ran a Sheet Metal Shop and fastened a “lazy-susan” turntable to a rounded out stool-top, bolted down a mannequin stand connector I found online, and bent up a 3/8th All Thread Rod and adapted it to Jerry’s legs. You can’t tell from the photos, but that base actually spins in place, all I have to do is give a little push and I can spin Jerry around in a 360 without ever lifting him up again, which is perfect for keeping the clothing in place while I get photos from every angle since picking him up constantly would shift everything out of place.

[shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/JerryStand.jpg[/shot][shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/JerryStand02.jpg[/shot][shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/JerryStand03.jpg[/shot]

Jerry’s career began to take off as he modeled his way through yet another Photobooth

[shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/IMG_20150726_191307.jpg[/shot][shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/IMG_20150726_193235.jpg[/shot][shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/IMG_20150729_183200.jpg[/shot]

Chapter 6 - Marvelous Designer & Jerry

While the setups I had were okay, they suffered a lot too. They were clunky, I was completely out of space for any more junk, and it took a lot of time to setup. However during some of my character creation I came across a program called Marvelous Designer. If you’re like me and have never heard of it, it’s a clothing simulator primarily for fashion designers. It allows you to draft a piece of clothing in a 2D Pattern maker just like you would in real life, and then the program would simulate sewing it together around a 3D Character simulating stress, wrinkles, gravity, and more. It’s an incredible program that is being used in the game industry and it makes designing clothing fast with great results.

However there is a catch, it’s meant for people who sew, not graphics people. So unless you understand how to make clothing it can be very hard to get the results you want. Luckily for me, I have an ace up my sleeve that I like to call mom. With my mother being a seamstress I have access to a lot of patterns, and although she doesn’t quite understand computers, she knew exactly what the program was doing and was more useful than any YouTube video I found online.

I’ve been recently working on a new system of referencing that combines my photography with my traditional character creation and Marvelous Designer. By using old clothing, as well as purchasing things from the local Thrift Store for a few bucks I have begun to pose Jerry inside my latest Photobooth (a fully collapsable sheet that rolls up for compact storage, and can be zipped into the porch for super fast assembly) with a high-quality light setup as he models clothing for me, I get an entire 360 reference of how the clothing sits on him, and when I’m happy that I have all that I need I take the clothing and rip open the seams, breaking it down into its original un-sewn stage, where take photos of the broken down article for both my texture, as well as my pattern that gets brought into Marvelous Designer and used to create highly accurate versions of 3D clothing that gets simulated right on top of my custom character, which can then be saved and imported into Maya ready to be sent into the production pipeline.

[shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/IMG_20160413_120959.jpg[/shot][shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/IMG_20160413_121005.jpg[/shot][shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/TShirt_TurntableTest_LOW.jpg[/shot][shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/T-ShirtTest.jpg[/shot][shot]http://www.pocketsizedanimations.com/downloads/photobooth/T-ShirtTest02.jpg[/shot]

So that’s it! This is a process I’ve been working on for the past year, my database is growing and my production has been refined. I am hoping to begin working on a website that will provide the greatest reference source for game developers possible from textures to references and even clothing patterns for Marvelous Designer. I hope you’ve enjoyed the story so far, and if you stuck it out through this massive post I’d love to see what everyone thinks! I’ve been working really hard on creating high-quality, clean, sharp, useful images. So if you feel like I’ve missed anything important I’d be happy to hear your thoughts.

And overall, I’d like to gauge interest from the community to see what people think. Would such a resource be useful to you as well? It’ll be a little while before I begin laying out plans for the website, as web-development is not something I’m capable of but I’d like to be able to setup something up.

The End

Lucas-san · June 21, 2016, 12:19am

D’aww! What a cute and interesting story!